German states file challenge against Belgian nuclear plants

March 8, 2016

Two western German states said Tuesday they planned to file a complaint at the EU and UN against Belgium over its ageing nuclear reactors which had their lifespan recently extended to 2025.

The Doel 1, 2 and Tihange 1 power stations have been in service since 1974-1975, and were scheduled to be shut down in 2015.

But the Belgian government in December decided to extend the lives of the 40-year-old reactors to 2025, under a deal to preserve jobs and invest in the transition to cleaner energy.

The states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate claimed however that before such a decision could be made, an environmental impact assessment had to be carried out, under a little known international convention called Espoo.

"The impact of an accident in Tihange and Doel would not be stop at the border of Rhineland-Palatinate," said the state's energy minister Eveline Lemke, stressing that decisions to extend nuclear plants' lifetime could not be imposed without consultations with neighbouring countries.

The reactor at Tihange is located just 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the German border while Doel is about 130 kilometres away.

Belgium's creaking nuclear plants have been causing safety concerns with its neighbours for some time now after a series of problems ranging from leaks to cracks and an unsolved sabotage incident.

Doel 1, the country's oldest reactor, was originally shuttered in February 2015 under a law calling for the country's gradual phaseout of nuclear power, but the government then restarted it under the extension deal.

But the plant, about 15 kilometres as the crow flies from the major port city of Antwerp, had to be closed three days later due to a generator problem. It has now restarted a second time.

Meanwhile Belgian operator Electrabel said in December it had restarted a reactor at its Tihange plant, just days after being forced to shut it down following a fire in the electricity supply system.

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Belgian power utility Electrabel said Saturday it had restarted a nuclear reactor at its ageing Tihange plant, just days after being forced to shut it down following a fire in the electricity supply system.

On the theory that a driver who knows when a red light will turn green is more relaxed and aware, vehicle manufacturer Audi is unveiling this week in Las Vegas a technology that enables vehicles to "read" traffic signals ...

I propose we take legal action against fear-mongers, sensationalist mass media, academic alarmists, charlatan scientists and pseudo-environmentalists that have induced millions of deaths (abortions, anxieties, stresses, heart-attacks, suicides) by spreading scaring tales among uninformed population in order to promote their ecologically hypocritical means of energy production.

I propose we take legal action against this dangerous technology before it kills all of us

Huh that's funny - I've been saying the same thing about psychopaths for a long time.

"The high incidence of [psycho]pathy in human society has a profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those of us who have not been clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute this 4 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth."

"We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent [psycho]paths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.

"Most of us would not imagine any correspondence between conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly lying to one's boss about a coworker. But the psychological correspondence is not only there; it is chilling."

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